A New View

So I realized today after walking a few miles that my attitude has changed a bit in the past seven months. When I first arrived, I wasn't thrilled to even have to walk to the bus stop every morning, which is maybe a half mile at the very most. Today, a friend and I had lunch, and after discovering that she had no patients, we decided to take a walk. We walked at least a few miles, but it was really warm today (40s), and it felt incredible, so I didn't realize how far we'd walked until my friend commented on it. I felt like I could walk forever! Walking is not the only way in which my view of the world has changed, but it's certainly a noticeable one. I also have learned what it means to be patient (potty training tends to teach that), how much of a treat it is for some people to be able to come in to the city, and how beautiful and incredible Dad is in every aspect of our lives, as well as the fact that He has control over every situation.

I was walking a few days ago, looking for a certain bus. I had gotten off of one and was looking for my connecting one. Anyway, the directions I had written down for myself apparently weren't the best. I got lost. I took a turn, found a bus yard where my bus was parked and felt like jumping up and down.. until 20 minutes later when I finally asked someone and found out that the buses do not start or end there. :( So I was once again lost. I left the bus yard and continued down the road until I came to an intersection. I wanted to go straight until I found a bus. The "common sense" in me thought that if I started making turns, it would be harder to find the main road again. However, I felt a small little voice, just once, say "left". So after a few steps, I went back and turned left. At the first intersection I found the bus I was looking for. :) I have no doubt that the small voice was Dad. He's just good like that.

So incredibly blessed!

Today has been amazing. I guess it really started last night though. I received an email from a friend about plans for when I arrive Stateside (in roughly 3 1/2 wks), as well as having a second friend invite me to either a baseball or basketball game not long after I return. I can honestly say that it was a answer to pr to remember that I'm going to have people to talk to, and that I felt like I was walking on a cloud. I have been blessed with some of the most incredible friends in the world (although, I'm admittedly a bit biased)! =)

So I started talking about today and ended up at yesterday. Today... I taught English, learned about Chinese New Year, shared my week with an awesome accountability group, and went to a nursing home with a pretty awesome group of people! I haven't laughed as much as I have today in a LONG time. Smiles are contagious. It's official. My Father is the most amazing one I could ask for and I love HIM beyond compare!

38 sticks of level 3 "coffeeness" is the best way to start your day. Just sayin.










Adorable? I think so.

DanceDanceRevolution and a New Car.. say what?

I have been hanging out a lot with friends for possibly the last time lately. I will be returning to the States on March 2 (with my mom! more on the in a minute). But that means that for those students and other foreigners who are going home for the Chinese holidays, I will not see them again before I leave. This break is actually longer for some people than summer break. The students get out at the beginning of January and go home for Chinese New Year/Spring Festival (Feb 14 this year).. and the dorms don't re-open until the beginning of March. So I've had a few interesting hang-out times..

Including one with a foreigner friend named Julie. She just left to go Stateside for the holidays. We went looking for a suitcase for her before she left and there was a lot of riggamaroe involved. Apparently, some shops require you to get a cash card to buy things there which is like a gift card (you just give them the money and they put it on the card) for personal use. *shrug* So we had to go hunt that down. And when she did, she received an orange and got entered into a drawing for a new car. Unfortunately, she didn't win the car.




On the way to the 5 different booths/shops it took to find everything, we passed an employee playing the Chinese version of dance dance revolution. :D Haha. So I gave it a shot. It's been a few years since I played, but I did okay til it drew a crowd. Then I lost focus. :( Anyway, after all that, we went and had coffee and talked for a while. It was a good day. I'm going to miss all these friends.. I'm excited that I can keep in touch with most of them though. Internet is amazing!! Dad has blessed me so richly in my relationships with people here!

My mom is coming to China!! She's arrives February 18th and will fly back home with me in March. It's her first time on a plane and her first time out of the country. :) Please keep her in your pr's! Also, as things are winding down in China, I still encounter new things and people daily. Please remember me that I will see every opportunity to bless Dad for what it is. Thanks ya'll! Love ya!

HoLiDaYs

Hey guys! Happy 2010! It's a bit chilly here.. reaching -20C and colder some days (which is neg in Fahrenheit as well). I hope wherever you are you're snuggled in a nice cozy room. =) I have gotten to go to nursing homes, a foster home, and an orphanage over the past few weeks. It's so amazing to see so many smiles. People joined the family right and left. And some were even washed. Very fun.


I'm getting ready to come back in February. I feel like Dad is telling me it is time to go home. It's stressful as well as a release of stress in more ways than one. I'm feeling a bit like I'm being pulled in a billion different directions. But Dad is good. And I just have to trust Him. I hope everyone's Christmas and New Years' was wonderful! Love you guys!

Where is home?

Hm. It's 1:15 AM, so if this sounds a bit like an awkward post, then that's probably because my body is screaming at me that I should be asleep, and yet for some reason I can't seem to get there. Lately I've read about a Christmas parade in Ranburne (the town where I grew up) and seen pictures of my family who lives there. I've seen pictures and heard comments about Auburn and the campus fellowship there that I was a part of for 2 years. And I've been here, in China. And I've seen people's faces light up when I say "Sheng deng kuai le" (Merry Christmas in Chinese). One of my teammates, who is much more like my brother now, asked me on the bus today something about studying "when you are at home." I couldn't answer. Because it took me a full 2 minutes to understand the question. I didn't know where home was. I'm still working on what exactly that means.


I've gotten to spend the past few days with people and children that I would gladly adopt.. as grandmothers and grandfathers or even as my own children. I've seen smiles and a few tears. I have seen snow and ice, frozen bus windows, and frozen lakes. Muffins, Christmas songs, bananas and oranges, sharing His word. I love it. I love the people. What now? One of my favorite songs. By Steven Curtis Chapman. What can I do with it? What will I do with it in my future, and where will I put it in my life? This trip, more than a trip really, had been a lifestyle, it has been a complete rearranging of thoughts of feelings, of who I am. I look forward with anticipation to the continued change.

A Friend

So today we went to a new nursing home. It's about 3 stories tall and we saw only a few of the many residents there. We were, however, able to pass out a muffin to each person there thanks to a couple of sisters here in our community who were willing to make and wrap about 150. =)

So anyway, on the way home we each shared something we learned. One of my teammates has just arrived back from Beijing. She was sharing that she is not a believer, but recently has been introduced to a reason to believe in Dad's existence. She had just bought some new earrings in Beijing, and not ten minutes later, a piece fell off of one and she couldn't find it anywhere. She was all prepared to give up when she said "*Father help me." It was barely out of her mouth when she stepped on the piece that had fallen off. =) So now she's "waffling" back and forth. Please pr for this sweet girl and all of those family members surrounding her. She has such an amazing heart.

The Ultimate Game of Chicken

Haha. Ok, so have you ever played chicken.. I mean the real thing, in cars, where you drive as fast as you can toward one another and turn at the last possible second? Well, I played that at least 3 times yesterday. Only, I wasn't driving. I was in a taxi.

I love the traffic in China. It's terrifying and nerve-wrecking and amazing. There are traffic laws, but they do not really get enforced. Red lights only mean stop when there are people on the other street, and then only sometimes still. Yellow lights most definitely mean speed up. And the lines for lanes.. those don't really exist. You swerve and slam on brakes and almost get run over by buses everywhere you go. I love it. It isn't uncommon for taxi drivers to go up on the bicycle part of the sidewalk when there is a red light to get ahead of everyone. However, one day, even my public bus went up on the sidewalk.. that was a bit interesting. It is also not uncommon for the taxi drivers to see a small break in traffic on the other side of the road, in oncoming traffic and take off. You get up to 65 mi/hr (which doesn't seem all that fast, but we're in the city) and try to make it around as many people as possible, all while looking for a place to jump back in and dodge oncoming vehicles. If you get motion-sick, you probably shouldn't come to China. There is one rule: if it's bigger than you, you let it go where it wants.